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SarahG wrote:Because I bet if you turn up 5 minutes late, they'll happily cancel your appointment and/or discharge you. That's what our local physio does to people who can't walk and so turn up 5 minutes late.

The appointment time that CX give you includes a 15minute grace period, say your appointment time is 11:45, the accual consiltation is not booked till 12:00 (15 minutes later), this is incase you are late, have paper work to full out and mainly to allow you time to compose yourself before the consultation.

I agree that they should have contatced you before hand about cancelling, did they give a reason why it was cancelled.

The reason that they give you could also contain the reason why they laft it so late... eg doctor had an emeragancey to attend to.

I'm disabled also and use cruches and sometimes wheelchairs, and i can see what incoveniance it has caused, but there would have been a good excuse for the cancelation.

i may not be CX admins greatest fan, but i cant see them leaving you in limbo. my last booked appointment, i was telephoned and told the booked day had to be cancelled, but they did offer me an appt in 3 days time, or it would be a hell of a wait otherwise. you stand a fair chance of being given option on a cancellation, they must have a list of 'prioritys' due to the duko hitting the fan at the last moment. i cannot see CX having to cancel at such short notice without good reason. the duky does hit the fan, your doctor may have been taken ill, he/she may have had a family emergency etc. as a suggestion, why not write to the doctor you was due to see and ask them the put you back on top of the list and tell them the shortest notice you can attend someone elses cancellation, even if you have to pull a sicky/fast one etc to attend.

SarahG wrote:Because I bet if you turn up 5 minutes late, they'll happily cancel your appointment and/or discharge you. That's what our local physio does to people who can't walk and so turn up 5 minutes late.

more than once i have been there when people who have a major distance to travel(usually new patients who havnt yet got travelling times frames down to a tee) to CX turn up very late, 1 hour or more, who then gave reasonable explanation, and the desk ladys have then booked another day and time for them without fuss or complaint. CX are underfunded and understaffed, but not heartless.

SarahG wrote:Because I bet if you turn up 5 minutes late, they'll happily cancel your appointment and/or discharge you. That's what our local physio does to people who can't walk and so turn up 5 minutes late.

Well, turns out I was pretty much on the mark.

She had to cancel an appointment, and called them a week in advance to let them know, which we can prove as her phone logs every single call, including the length, and writes it to google calendar.

She receives a snotty letter that arrived 20 days after the date on the letter saying they're going to discharge her because she didn't turn up and didn't cancel, and giving her 4 weeks (i.e. 8 days now) to write back explaining herself. This is to someone who is not even physically capable of writing. It's a bloody good job I'm around to deal with all this cr*p.

I still haven't had my first appointment with them, but I'm getting more and more anxious about it, since I'm still really early in the process and so will be seeing them for a lot longer. I've basically given up and started self medding which I guess is going to count against me too.

It strikes me that I should also add my experience here, just so it goes on the record.

I was scheduled to have an appointment with Dr Barrett on the 14th of November after waiting nearly five months (actually quick for CX!) only to have it cancelled at the last moment: well, not quite as bad as some, but with less than a week's notice. Not quite as bad as the OP, but still unacceptable, especially as the reason given was so that he could attend a "strategic review meeting", which does seem to send out a rather clear "you're not important to us" message.

They also weren't in a hurry to reschedule either, pushing the appointment back 10 weeks: we were told that his waiting time is normally six months, I suppose at least they didn't use the phrase "you're lucky you're not waiting even longer!" as they did the first time I protested about the delays.

I suppose I wouldn't mind so much but I only had a single appointment in 2013, with Dr Lenihan, who pretty much refused to progress my care, so in effect it'll be well over a year since any decision was made regarding my treatment: by the time I next see Dr Barrett it'll be nearly three years since first raising the matter of gender dysphoria with my GP, still with no guarantee that any further progress will be made. It's not a process for the impatient.

I think it would be easier to take if there was any indication that they had any sympathy at all for the inconvenienced patient. But there isn't.

Edit: apologies to all if I'm beginning to labour the point a bit. I guess I'm still a bit depressed about it, and I'm quite forgetful so I may not remember how much I've whittered on...